1.Exams finally over gfx lab left
2.Very Very hot on the 3rd floor esp during the afternoon
3.DVD writer not working :( driver is corrupted (wonder how that happend?)
4.Got algos paper today. have a grand total of about 60. Going to get a B- :((
5.Waiting for the next India-Eng match. can't remember india thrashing 3 teams in a row like this
6.Dad agreed to but me a laptop. Now i have to wait for some relative/friend to come to india and give it. But it's a cool laptop from Hp. Intel Dual core 1.8ghz,1gb ram, nvidia7400 256mb,80gb sata,16x dvd writer,17" tft with side lamps,tv tuner :D,creative audigy4. All this for $1300=60K=awesome deal
7.Having nightmares with the agrids lab server. The damn thing just wont work with linux. Open invitation to all those champions of linux to make it work :P
8.my cell phone is on it's death bed. (dont worry it's a moto c131 yuck....) Will get a new phone by next sem
9.looking forward to the summer. Have a cool project with kannan and kamal guiding me. Will have a lotta work but then it's not everday that u get to work on things u want to work on. Also got the world cup coming up. But somehow the world cup doesn't quite appeal to me. Prefer the champions league. coz the overall quality is better.
10.Finished with The OC. have watched till 320. waiting for more episodes. Also would like to thank Firefox(manan from ug2) for his dedication to dloading stuff. U rock firefox.
11.Finally the sem is over. It has been a horrible sem becoz of the workload. But i also made my blogging debut this sem and intend to put up a last post on 12th.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Counter Halley post
About 2-3 months ago Halley wrote a pretty long and debate triggering post about the state d'affairs in IIIT. He raised more hell then good points in my opinion. I thought of writing a counter view to each issue raised. But Nirnimesh already did it. But recently Halley rewrote the whole thing(i found it only now !) so i decided to write a counter blog instead of counter comments.
1.Research: Do you expect miracles in research from UG students? The "research" work we do here is like a small taste of what research is like. It's like a "Intro to reserach" course or something. I have read people saying that honors and MSBR are useless. Well own their own they are but that's not what these things are meant for. They are supposed to put you on the track to research. And there is a limit to the amount of research and new ideas that can come up in a year so it's natural for the same things to be repeated in XoR or R&D though mind u things that are repeated are always improved models of the previous year.
2.Faculty suks: This sem i have had Prosenjit, Kannan, Kamal, PJN, and Sanghal teach us courses. I don't think any institute in India can do that. And sometimes we have Faculty members straying outside their areas of expertise to teach us courses(eg OS, ITWS) so they are bound to look dumb. But that doesn't mean they are hopeless.
3.HSSM suks:I have taken just one HSSM till date. (Industry n Society) last sem. I went to most of the classes had cool discussions with the prof(Dr.Janardhan from HCU) and enjoyed the course. i think taking a HSSM is like taking a course. You don't take dumb courses and similarly u don't take stupid HSSM's like fine arts.
4.Mess suks:If u employ private caterers this is going to happen. The institute should have it's own cooks who are like employees. This is the sytem followed by most colleges like IIT's
5.Canteen will commit suicide: This canteen is reasonable and it will survive coz the quality is ok. Honestly i think it's difficult to have a fancy canteen coz people aren't willing to spend money to eat in it.
6.Mag team suks: I have never seen the college magzine. I think the collection of blogs in IIIT does a good job of replacing the magzine. Blogs are the new age journalism tools. Blogs rock
7.Campus Life suks: Everything is in the hands of the students. We form the councils and even control the budget. But what do we do nothing? Faculty can't help us on this.
8.IIIT as a university: I agree with u. I also see IIIT as a corporate college. To be a university the institute has to sincerely encourage other acivities. This includes Cultural, Sports and social acivites. The present management sadly, doesn't see beyond academics
9.Misuse of resources: As far as computer resource allocation is concerned whoever is incharge of computer stuff deserves to get his a$$ fried. I dont have a lab PC. When i really pestered the labcom he said i have a room pc so i shouldn't demand a lab pc. Ballz. Institute is supposed to give us atleast a pc. Finally got a pc but it had no ram, no hdd and no drives. UG2 had a meeting with the director last sem to discuss the situaton with regard to pc allocation. He said he would do something but then again....this is IIIT nothing happened
10 Grading system suks: I agree. But isin't this a risk u are taking when u make ug students tutors? and by the way 70% tutors are honest. It's some guys who do some "hera pheri" but dishonesty is dishonesty.
11. Democracy suks: Well when we have elections we vote for people we know won't work once elected and then we complain how the parliament suks. The parliament is only as good as those that are a part of it. We all know how hard Pranav works for campus life issues. But i think this is the first time he is part of the parliament. This shows how irresponsibly the students vote.
I have nothing against Halley. Personally i admire u for standing out among the crowd and speaking ur mind. Hope u read this and leave some nice commets :D
1.Research: Do you expect miracles in research from UG students? The "research" work we do here is like a small taste of what research is like. It's like a "Intro to reserach" course or something. I have read people saying that honors and MSBR are useless. Well own their own they are but that's not what these things are meant for. They are supposed to put you on the track to research. And there is a limit to the amount of research and new ideas that can come up in a year so it's natural for the same things to be repeated in XoR or R&D though mind u things that are repeated are always improved models of the previous year.
2.Faculty suks: This sem i have had Prosenjit, Kannan, Kamal, PJN, and Sanghal teach us courses. I don't think any institute in India can do that. And sometimes we have Faculty members straying outside their areas of expertise to teach us courses(eg OS, ITWS) so they are bound to look dumb. But that doesn't mean they are hopeless.
3.HSSM suks:I have taken just one HSSM till date. (Industry n Society) last sem. I went to most of the classes had cool discussions with the prof(Dr.Janardhan from HCU) and enjoyed the course. i think taking a HSSM is like taking a course. You don't take dumb courses and similarly u don't take stupid HSSM's like fine arts.
4.Mess suks:If u employ private caterers this is going to happen. The institute should have it's own cooks who are like employees. This is the sytem followed by most colleges like IIT's
5.Canteen will commit suicide: This canteen is reasonable and it will survive coz the quality is ok. Honestly i think it's difficult to have a fancy canteen coz people aren't willing to spend money to eat in it.
6.Mag team suks: I have never seen the college magzine. I think the collection of blogs in IIIT does a good job of replacing the magzine. Blogs are the new age journalism tools. Blogs rock
7.Campus Life suks: Everything is in the hands of the students. We form the councils and even control the budget. But what do we do nothing? Faculty can't help us on this.
8.IIIT as a university: I agree with u. I also see IIIT as a corporate college. To be a university the institute has to sincerely encourage other acivities. This includes Cultural, Sports and social acivites. The present management sadly, doesn't see beyond academics
9.Misuse of resources: As far as computer resource allocation is concerned whoever is incharge of computer stuff deserves to get his a$$ fried. I dont have a lab PC. When i really pestered the labcom he said i have a room pc so i shouldn't demand a lab pc. Ballz. Institute is supposed to give us atleast a pc. Finally got a pc but it had no ram, no hdd and no drives. UG2 had a meeting with the director last sem to discuss the situaton with regard to pc allocation. He said he would do something but then again....this is IIIT nothing happened
10 Grading system suks: I agree. But isin't this a risk u are taking when u make ug students tutors? and by the way 70% tutors are honest. It's some guys who do some "hera pheri" but dishonesty is dishonesty.
11. Democracy suks: Well when we have elections we vote for people we know won't work once elected and then we complain how the parliament suks. The parliament is only as good as those that are a part of it. We all know how hard Pranav works for campus life issues. But i think this is the first time he is part of the parliament. This shows how irresponsibly the students vote.
I have nothing against Halley. Personally i admire u for standing out among the crowd and speaking ur mind. Hope u read this and leave some nice commets :D
Thursday, March 23, 2006
The Attendence rule in IIIT :(
Today i saw one of my batchmates pretty upset coz he didn't attend the AI class and now he's gonna lose a grade. I sympathise with him coz i'm one of the student's whose suffered a lot because of the attendence rule. I joined the institute about 15 days late(due to various reasons) and started off with about 6 absents in each subject.At the end of the semester i lost about 1 grade point and ended up with a sgpa of 6 whereas i had actually got about 7.1. I talked to the dean and the dean said that i came late and that i could "get out of his office." Numerous other people from my batch and also others have lost a lot of grades due to attendence.
If you look at the grades and their meanings here it's clear that grades are meant to reflect academic acheivement. Now if i get an "A" grade it means that i've performed excellently in the course. But in that very course if my attendence is 74% i get an "F" which means i "have not picked up any of the basic/required concepts taught in the course and have performed uniformly bad in all the assessments". How contradictory!. Aren't grades meaningless with such policies. I mean you could know everyting taught in the course get full marks in every test, every assignment and still be classified as "F" !
Secondly when a Faculty member gives you a grade he thinks you deserve that grade. Then to alter that grade for non-academic reasons is very disrespectful to both the faculty members opinion and also the hard work of the student.
And to anyone who says "grades don't matter it's about what you learn".....I'm sorry! that's how the system works. Wherever you go any faculty member will ask you your grades. Whenever you apply outside you are asked your grades. I wonder if any faculty member has had their grades deducted due to attendence during their B.Tech.
And i don't understand the need for such a rule. from what i gather senior batches like ug99 and ug2k really abused the no-attendence policy. There were people who didn't attend a single class the entire sem and still got A grades. I agreee that such a situation ruins the discipline of the college but implementing the current rules is way too extreme. Something like a 70 % attendence policy would be reasonable. Surely there must be other possible penalties for low attendence other then deducting grades.
And as for the rule it's a vague rule. And I know everybody says the dean is responsible and blah blah blah. But this is the institute policy. And such descicions aren't made by the dean alone. The director the dean and senior faculty members are all involved in this descision making. So in short all the faculty members without exception are responsible for this. I know some faculty members don't think this is the right way of doing things and but they too can't do anything.
I hope some of my fellow iiit'ians will read this and think of it as worthwhile to discuss this issue. This is a serious issue and deserves atleast a decent discussion. I feel if all students come together we can atleast force the faculty to have a rethink on this issue.
If you look at the grades and their meanings here it's clear that grades are meant to reflect academic acheivement. Now if i get an "A" grade it means that i've performed excellently in the course. But in that very course if my attendence is 74% i get an "F" which means i "have not picked up any of the basic/required concepts taught in the course and have performed uniformly bad in all the assessments". How contradictory!. Aren't grades meaningless with such policies. I mean you could know everyting taught in the course get full marks in every test, every assignment and still be classified as "F" !
Secondly when a Faculty member gives you a grade he thinks you deserve that grade. Then to alter that grade for non-academic reasons is very disrespectful to both the faculty members opinion and also the hard work of the student.
And to anyone who says "grades don't matter it's about what you learn".....I'm sorry! that's how the system works. Wherever you go any faculty member will ask you your grades. Whenever you apply outside you are asked your grades. I wonder if any faculty member has had their grades deducted due to attendence during their B.Tech.
And i don't understand the need for such a rule. from what i gather senior batches like ug99 and ug2k really abused the no-attendence policy. There were people who didn't attend a single class the entire sem and still got A grades. I agreee that such a situation ruins the discipline of the college but implementing the current rules is way too extreme. Something like a 70 % attendence policy would be reasonable. Surely there must be other possible penalties for low attendence other then deducting grades.
And as for the rule it's a vague rule. And I know everybody says the dean is responsible and blah blah blah. But this is the institute policy. And such descicions aren't made by the dean alone. The director the dean and senior faculty members are all involved in this descision making. So in short all the faculty members without exception are responsible for this. I know some faculty members don't think this is the right way of doing things and but they too can't do anything.
I hope some of my fellow iiit'ians will read this and think of it as worthwhile to discuss this issue. This is a serious issue and deserves atleast a decent discussion. I feel if all students come together we can atleast force the faculty to have a rethink on this issue.
Monday, March 06, 2006
CUSAT to become an IIT
But first wtf is CUSAT?? CUSAT=Cochin University of Science and Technology Anybody who at first sight guesses the meaning of CUSAT deserves a Medal. In fact anybody who even knows that there is something called CUSAT deserves atleast a prize. According to this article cochin university is going to be granted the status of an IIT. For once the Government of India should be serious about higher education. I mean i never even heard about "CUSAT" before i read this article. Now this is an online publication so i don't know how accurate it is but The Hindu is generelly pretty reliable so i guess the news is true. How can a place like CUSAT which never does any creditable work of any kind(never seen or heard of them in any technical/sports competition till date) leave alone research, become an IIT. I mean if this is how IIT's are made an this is there standard then i am sooooooo happy to be in IIIT. People will argue that the facilities will improve. But what about faculty? I'm sure the faculty of "CUSAT" are not upto IIT standard. So are they going to fire the entire "CUSAT" faculty overnight? this is a joke of the highest order. Man somebody needs to kick the governments ass.........
Friday, March 03, 2006
How the half-truth can make everybody look dumb
Today i had one of the parliament members coming up to me and telling me that the director was pretty upset with the parliament and i was largely to blame for that because of some of my comments in a previous FSIS. Now for those of you who didn't attend the FSIS on 23rd or 24th feb (i.e. everybody in IIIT :D and i don't remember the exact date) here's what went down.
The director was cricizing the parliment members for not being active enough. Pranav defended the parliament members and somewhere down the line the issue of the elections came up. I then asked the director why the elections were cancelled in the first place. Dr.Sangal was rather surpised to know that the students weren't informed. The reason he gave us was that the then SLC charperson(Dr.Jayanthi) felt that the election was very regional in nature and some students were "coerced" into giving votes according to their wishes. I don't know how true this is. The point that i raised was that if the election results were cancelled that means that the faculty belives that some of the candidates were involved in some sort of wrong-doing. If that is the case then why were those people who, in the eyes of the faculty were involved in malpractices allowed to be in the parliament, given how strict the faculty is in dealing with "dishonesty". This is a glaring contradiction. On the other hand if the faculty is of the view that the candidates did nothing wrong then why were the elections cancelled in the first place. This is again a very contradicting situation. Either way their was a improper descision on the part of the facluty and the worst part of this was that all the students were kept in the dark about all this which is again very surprising on the part of the faculty. Even some of the candidates present there said that they also knew nothing about this situation.
After listening to all this Dr.Sangal said quote " Well we are very sorry about this situation and sorry that the students were not told about this " unquote.
Now anybody who has a different version of events can personally come and tell me his/her version. I'm pretty sure about what was said and i'm also sure that there is no other true version. This comes up because it seems some other people gave some parliament members a different version of events. That is pretty unfortunate given how crystal clear this part of the FSIS was.
And to the parliament members........I just don't see how i have incriminated you in any way. This was clearly something related to the vague descision making of the faculty. You or your credentials or your integrity or commitment were in no way questioned anywhere. If anything I was making a point that you people should have made for yourselves last year after the descision to cancel the elections was taken. I am really disappointed with the situation and hope for more positive and responsible reactions from people in ther future.
The director was cricizing the parliment members for not being active enough. Pranav defended the parliament members and somewhere down the line the issue of the elections came up. I then asked the director why the elections were cancelled in the first place. Dr.Sangal was rather surpised to know that the students weren't informed. The reason he gave us was that the then SLC charperson(Dr.Jayanthi) felt that the election was very regional in nature and some students were "coerced" into giving votes according to their wishes. I don't know how true this is. The point that i raised was that if the election results were cancelled that means that the faculty belives that some of the candidates were involved in some sort of wrong-doing. If that is the case then why were those people who, in the eyes of the faculty were involved in malpractices allowed to be in the parliament, given how strict the faculty is in dealing with "dishonesty". This is a glaring contradiction. On the other hand if the faculty is of the view that the candidates did nothing wrong then why were the elections cancelled in the first place. This is again a very contradicting situation. Either way their was a improper descision on the part of the facluty and the worst part of this was that all the students were kept in the dark about all this which is again very surprising on the part of the faculty. Even some of the candidates present there said that they also knew nothing about this situation.
After listening to all this Dr.Sangal said quote " Well we are very sorry about this situation and sorry that the students were not told about this " unquote.
Now anybody who has a different version of events can personally come and tell me his/her version. I'm pretty sure about what was said and i'm also sure that there is no other true version. This comes up because it seems some other people gave some parliament members a different version of events. That is pretty unfortunate given how crystal clear this part of the FSIS was.
And to the parliament members........I just don't see how i have incriminated you in any way. This was clearly something related to the vague descision making of the faculty. You or your credentials or your integrity or commitment were in no way questioned anywhere. If anything I was making a point that you people should have made for yourselves last year after the descision to cancel the elections was taken. I am really disappointed with the situation and hope for more positive and responsible reactions from people in ther future.
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